유치원 표준교육비 산출연구 = A Study on Minimum Standard Costs of Kindergarten Education

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The importance of kindergarten education has been emphasized by policy-makers since 1980 in Korea. However, there has not been enough financial support for the development of quality education for young children. Educational conditions in kindergarten are far below the standard level which is prescribed in related educational laws. The purpose of this study is to estimate the minimum standard costs of kindergarten education which can meet the minimum level of educational conditions to ensure normal educational activities. It can be used as basic data for financial need assessments and efficient budget allocation. Budget plans of central and provincial governments and 25 kindergartens and survey results for 100 kindergartens are analyzed. The current level of educational costs of kindergarten turned out to be 55% level of the estimated minimum standard costs. Kindergarten which has 1 or 2 classrooms has low quality of education because of the lack of finance. The kindergartens which have less than 4 classrooms suffer more. It means tuition should be raised 1.7times on the average for private kindergarten, ceteris paribus. Policy priority should be given to securing sufficient operating costs for public kindergarten and personnel costs for private one. Governments should make eftorts to increase financial support to kindergarten education and to develop better way of allocating edcational costs.